State pilots desktop open source

OPEN-SOURCE pilots in the NSW government are gathering momentum, with the Department of Commerce the latest agency to kick the tyres of desktop
applications.

The Commerce pilot follows a Roads and Traffic Authority announcement last month that it was evaluating an open-source desktop productivity
suite.

NSW IT and Commerce Minister John Della Bosca has been advocating the use of open source in NSW government agencies.

He said recently he would use policy rather than legislation to create a level playing field for open-source adoption in the NSW government.

In any government tender process where an evaluation of open-source versus proprietary software produced roughly the same results, agencies would be
encouraged to use the open-source product, he said.